News & Analysis

Somali demonstrators demand release of Somali aid-workers held in US as terrorists

By M A Shaikh

On August 8 hundreds of angry Somalis demonstrated in Mogadishu, the capital, and in the adjacent town of Afgoi, to demand the release of two Somali aid-workers (both women) who were indicted in the US two days earlier for allegedly giving support to al-Shabaab, Somalia’s main Islamic group. Shouting “Free our two sisters”, the demonstrators emphasised that they are aid-workers from Afgoi, where ten thousand people who have fled the violence in the capital are temporarily housed. The women were collecting funds to feed them, not to fund al-Shabaab.

One of the demonstrators, Farhia Ali, told reports that she personally knows one of the two arrested women, giving her name as Amina Farah Ali, 33. She added that “Amina was helping us send money to displaced families, and not to terrorists.” In fact both Amina Farah Ali and her companion pleaded not guilty when they appeared in a packed courtroom on August 5. “We are not terrorists,” Amina said. As she is an American citizen and lives, like her colleague, in the city of Rochester (southern Minnesota), there is little doubt that the authorities know (and knew) that both are genuine charity workers, and not connected with terrorism.

US announcement of direct talks already a success for Israel and bodes ill for Palestinians

By Iqbal Siddiqui

The announcement by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on August 20 that the US is to host direct talks between Palestinian president Mahmood Abbas and Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has singularly failed to raise hopes of progress toward any level of justice for the suffering people of Palestine. Indeed, the only reason most Palestinians have not reacted more angrily to the announcement is that they have long since given up expecting anything from the process as a whole or from any of the parties involved, particularly their own supposed leader and representatives.

“Ground Zero Mosque” crisis and the smoke screen of moderate Muslim identity

By Zainab Cheema

The recent Ground Zero Mosque controversy has become the crucible of fevered reactions and terrors. It’s vaulted a relatively unknown figure, Feisal Abdul Rauf, into prominence and transformed a below-radar project into a cultural crusade.

Everyone has seen fit to weigh in on the construction of the Park 51 Center at the site of the empty Burlington Coat Factory. From Sarah Palin’s illiterate tweets to Barack Obama’s noble speechifying, to pundits and brahmins and politicos dealing in every shade of political wool, the Center has dispersed the summer torpor misting national politics. Yes, government policy has suddenly become interesting again, on a mass-level. The Muslims have succeeded where Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden most epically wilted.

They’ve come for the lawyers…

By Fahad Ansari in London

The presumption of innocence is the cornerstone of every legal system in the modern world and one which goes to the heart of the principles of due process. Linked to this fundamental principle is the right to legal representation — the right to have an individual, suitably qualified in the realm of legal studies, represent your interests and defend you before the mechanisms of the state. If the right to representation were to be withdrawn from a defendant, his right to a fair trial would be severely compromised. The question then arises as to whether there are any circumstances in which a defendant’s right to legal representation could be revoked or withdrawn.

German Muslims continue to suffer from post 9/11 trauma

By Seyfeddin Kara

Germany has a notorious reputation for its racist and discriminatory attitude toward minorities. It has refused to accommodate a large minority community that has lived in Germany for generations. Since the 1960s, successive governments have insisted on considering minorities merely as “guest workers” who would one day (preferably soon) return to their country of origin. Thus they have made little attempt to integrate minority communities, which have been left to face a myriad of social and economic problems, and suffer increasing alienation from the wider society.

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